Leaf holding and feeding mechanism for decorticating apparatus



Feb. '7, 1939. R. s CHAPMAN 2,146,563 LEAF HOLDING AND FEEDING MECHANISM FOR DECORTICATING' APPARATUS Filed Oct. 4, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR.

ATTORNEY n N\ N a w/ /X// 69/2 Feb. 7, 1939.

R. s. CHAPMAN 2,146,563 LEAF HOLDING 'AND FEEDING MECHANISM FOR DECORTICATING APPARATUS Filed Oct. 4, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTORNEY Patented Feb. 7, 1939 UNITED STATES LEAF HOLDING AND FEEDING MECHANISM FOR DECORTICATING APPARATUS Robert S. Chapman, Phoenix, Ariz., assignor of one-half to W. C. Lipscomb, Dallas, Tex.

Application October 4, 1937, Serial No. 167,218

Claims.

While my invention relates generally to leaf holding and feeding devices for decorticating apparatus, more particularly it concerns a pneumatically operated clamping device in the form 5 of a carriage adapted to hold a charge of leaves to be scutched by a decorticating drum together with conjunctive pneumatic and hydraulic mechanism adapted to feed said carriage toward and away from said drum at proper pre-determined lo and controlled speeds.

It will be recalled that heretofore it has been known to the art that leaves, stalks, or other parts of certain fibrous plants could be scutched, and the pulp separated from the fibers, without previous maceration, by presenting the leaves, or the like, to the action of a revolving drum having its periphery covered with a large number of closely spaced teeth of equal length. Teeth of various shapes have been used; some shaped as 99 spikes, others as knives, while others were merely unshaped steel wires. The practice has been to feed the leaves into the drum, whereby the leaves are caught in the teeth and forced between them and a flat surface, or the curved a surface of a shoe, substantially conforming to the peripheral contour of the teeth on the drum.

Various methods of feeding leaves into these drums have been tried; but few have met with commercial success, and all are for the most part variations of merely a hand feed. The limlted production, due to hand feed, has heretofore prevented commercial production of leaf fibre except in foreign countries where cheap hand labor is available.

While various mechanical devices have been tried experimentally, so far as known, all have failed due to one or more factors which'were not overcome.

These factors concern chiefly the nature of the leaves themselves. Due to their variable size and texture, in order to hold and control any reasonably-sized bundle of or charge of leaves, great force must be used on the jaws, or other gripping elements, of the clamping or holding device. Manual effort for this objectis not feasible. A mistake previously made by eX- perimenters was to attempt to mechanically macerate theleaves by the actionof interacting fluted rolls., .It was later found that this merely broke the long fibers, and I have foundit to be entirely unnecessary. A further'mistake made by previous experimenters was an attempt to feed the leaves through the drum; that is, they were held for .a time by one end and then released and '55; allowed toibe ,drawn through between drum surface and shoe. The result was that the long usable fiber was not properly scutched at one end, and was hopelessly entangled with the tow and shorter fibers, rendering the mass of little value. As the art developed it became increasingly evident that the leaves must be tightly gripped between jaws motivated by mechanical means. When this is done, however, it becomes absolutely necessary to control the carriage holding the leaves as they are fed into the drum. After the feed is started, and as the teeth attack the leaves, the mass is drawn into the drum with great force, and for the control of any charge of leaves of a practical size, more than manual power is necessary.

With these facts in mind, and to accomplish the hereinafter stated objects, I have produced the following described mechanism. It is adapted to receive a, charge of leaves from any convenient source, feed the charge into and from the drum, and retain the long fiber after each operation. The device is adapted to operate on either stalks or leaves of all types of fibrous bearing plants, including those such as Yucca mohavensis, Nucca macrocarpa, Yucca glauce, Yucca elata, lechaguilla, henequen, sisal, and the like, and may be used in conjunction with any desired type of scutching or decorticating drum. Therefore, wherever the term leaves is used herein, it should be understood as referring broadly to any of the above; and references to the drum are intended to include any of above mentioned drums.

The objects of my invention are:

First, to provide a convenient receiving element or carriage for leaves to be treated;

Second, to provide a clamp and. holding means within this receiving element, having sufiicient power to hold a charge of leaves to be decorticated;

Third, to provide means for moving the receiving element toward and away from a decorticating drum wherein said leaves are to be scutched;

Fourth, to provide a frame construction, including shields, adapted to direct the leaves into operative position with said decorticating drum;

Fifth, to provide mechanical, hydraulic, and pneumatic mechanism to actuate and control the leaf clamping means, and the feeding mecha nism; and

Sixth, to provide manual controls conveniently situated and adapted to control the functions of the entire mechanism.

Other objects will appear hereinafter.

.I attain these objects by means of the apparatus, construction, devices, and mechanism, illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which- Figure l is a side elevation of my device, parts thereof being sectioned off to show interior parts; the section being taken substantially on line ll Fig. 2; Fig. 2 is an end elevation thereof; Fig. 3 a somewhat enlarged section of the leaf clamp taken on line 3-3 Fig. 2; Fig. 4. is a diagrammatic view of the pneumatic and hydraulic connections of the carriage feeding mechanism; and Fig. 5 is a diagrammatic representation of the pneumatic leaf holding mechanism.

Similar numerals refer to similar parts in the several views.

Construction A general base framework 2 affords support for the scutching or decorticating drum 3, which is mounted near the right hand end, as shown in Fig. l. A shoe 5, also supported on this frame is operatively associated with this drum, and a hood 5, provided with a hinged visor 5, forms a covering.

At right angles to the axis of the drum and extending outwardly and away from the position of the shoe, is a steel guide trough i, having a fiat bottom 8, and sides 9. This is conveniently supported on the base framework so that its bottom is level with the top of shoe t, and is of suihcient length so as to accommodate any length of leaves to be scutched when held within the leaf holding carriage.

S-lidably operative within this guide trough is the leaf holding carriage Hi. This carriage rests and slides on the bottom of the trough and its motion is guided by the vertical sides thereof.

The carriage body is composed of a bottom cross member 52, and a top cross bar 13, joined by vertical end pieces M. A hopper or leaf receiver is formed by an apron l3, joined at its forward edge to the cross member l2, and at the side edges to side-wings E5, the forward edges of which are in turn attached to the vertical end pieces 54. All of these parts are preferably made of steel with the joints therebetween welded. a

As shown herewith, the vertical end pieces are preferably made of pairs of bars riveted to the cross bars at the top and bottom. A space be tween these pairs of bars affords vertical guides iii to receive the ends of the upper clamp jaw H.

Two hydraulic cylinders 28 are mounted on the upper bar i3, extending vertically above it. Pistons within these cylinders are attached to piston rods 2!, which extend downwardly through said bar and are in'turn attached by slots and pins 22 to the vertical portion or rib' of jaw ii at two points equally spaced from the ends. These pins provide a working and slightly rotative connection between the parts joined to allow for slight inequalities of the mass of any leaf charge to be held. The length of cylinders 25 is proportioned to provide full travel of the jaw ll throughout the length of the vertical guides it. These in turn are proportioned to allow for adequate jaw opening which should be about three times the height of a charge of leaves before compression. The upper jaw if has the general section of an inverted T, the Vertical portion extending outward to work in guides I5.

The lower surface. of upper jaw ii is provided with a downwardly extending bar 23, slight- 1y smaller in section than a parallel groove 24, cut in the lower cross member i2. This cross member also forms the lower jaw of the leaf clamp. In the bottom of this groove a pad of resilient materiaL'such as pliant rubber 25, may be placed to afford a better hold and to prevent damage to the long fibers in the leaves.

A round bar 25 is attached a short distance from the forward edge of jaw if, by a number of semi-resilient arched supports 2'5. This bar is used to help hold down any stray leaf ends which might buckle upward above vizor 5 when the clamp jaws are closed. A plow bar 31, having an upwardly slanting forward face is attached to the front edge of lower bar l2. combined mechanism, including the lower and upper jaws, the latter being operatively associated with said piston rods and cylinders, together with the necessary supporting members, may be termed the leaf clamp.

Movement of the pistons within cylinders 20 is produced by compressed air, supplied through a flexible hose 28, which is looped to afford sufficient length to permit the movement of the carriage. The outer end of this hose is attached to a supply pipe on frame 2 and the other end attached to one connection of a four-way manually operatable valve 29, attached to the upper bar it between cylinders 20.

The connections for operating these cylinders are shown in Fig. 5. Valve 29 is of conventional construction, and so positioned that a 90 degree movement of its core 30 distributes air from the intake vent 3! to pipes 32 connected to the heads of said cylinders or to pipes 33 connected to their gland ends, and at the same time permits exhaust through part M, of air from the oppos1te ends of the cylinders. A handle 35 (shown at mid-position) is attached to the distributing core of this valve and extends outward to afford manual control. A regulating valve 36 is inserted in theconnection leading to the gland side of the cylinders to afford a regulation and check on the downward movement of the pistons and attached parts to prevent accidents to the hands of the operator.

Movement of the carriage H3 is afforded by two parallel horizontal cylinders 48, pistons operative therein and piston rods 4i connected to the cross member E2 of the carriage frame underneath the apron it, (see Fig. 3), by means of nuts attached to their threaded ends. These cylinders are attached to parallel 0 bars 42, conveniently supported on main frame 2, with a space between them sufficient to accommodate an operator who stands in a position facing the carriage at the limit of its outward movement (the position shown in Fig. 2).

The pistons of these cylinders are actuated in unison by means of compressed air, but their movement toward the decorticating drum is controlled by hydraulic means.

The outer ends of cylinders Mlare joined by pipes 3 to a common pipe '34 in which is placed a check valve 45, bridged by a control Valve 46.

The inner or gland ends of these cylinders are connected by pipes 48 to a main pipe 49 containing a check valve 55, bridged by a control valve 55. Pipe 49 leads to the bottom of closed oil supply tank '52. This tank is partially filled with thin oil, glycerine, water or other comparatively non-compressible fluid. The top of this tank is connected by pipe 53 to connection 54 of a fourway, 90 degree operative, rotary core distributing valve 55. An oppositely positioned connection is attached to pipe 45 leading to the'cylinder heads. A further connection 56 leads through The pipe 51. to. asource of supply of compressed air, and a fourth connection 58 provides an exhaust (see Fig. ,4). In Fig. Zpiping between pipes 48 and 49 are broken away for the sake of clarity. The gland .ends ofsaid cylinders, pipes 48, pipe 49, the valves 59 and 5|, and the lower portion of tank 52 are filled with oil, and piston movement away from the decorticating drum is caused by its pressure. Air from distributing valve 55 furnishes oil pressure when needed. Check Valve 50 is set so that there is free movement of oil from tank 52 .into the cylinders but its movement out of the cylinders is checked and it is forced to go through regulating control valve 5|. The same is true of check valve 45 and control valve 46, although these obviously operate on compressed air.

Control valve is operated by a lever and treadle 60,-held normally in the upper position, as shown, by a long spring 6|. When depressed to the lower limit of its travel the treadle bar engages a latch 62 which holds it down against the tension of the spring until the forward movement of the carriage causes the forward portion of the plow bar 31 to contact a pin 53 carried on an angular crank 54 (indicated by dotted outline Fig. 1), which in turn pulls cable 65 and releases latch 62.

Operation The drum 3 is rotated counterclockwise by a belt running over its driving pulley I9. Compressed air at about 100 pounds is supplied to the pipe 5'! connecting to both distribution valves. The carriage is positioned as shown in Fig. 1, and the upper jaws fully opened by operation of handle 35.

A charge of leaves 67, and indicated by dotted outline, is then introduced into the clamp in the carriage I0, and the upper jaw closed by operation of lever handle 35. Thereupon the carriage is caused to move forward by moving lever and treadle downward, and the charge is fed into the drum. As soon as the drum teeth take hold of the leaves there is a great force exerted tending to draw the carriage forward. To prevent the too rapid forward movement, which would prevent proper scutching, this movement is checked by the oil through control valve 5|. When the carriage has reached the limit of its movement, as indicated by dotted outline 68, the treadle is released, as above explained, lever 60 is drawn upward and the valve 55 turned to produce reverse motion of the carriage. Since it is desirable to get the leaf fibers away from the drum as soon as scutched, this rearward movement is regulated by valve 45 so as to be faster. Upon the return of the carriage the upper jaw of the leaf clamp is released by operation of lever 35 and the charge reversed or turned end for end and the carriage again moved forward for a second scutching of the uncut ends. Upon the return of the carriage, a second time, the scutched fiber is removed and a new charge of leaves placed in the clamp and the operation repeated.

From the foregoing it is obvious to those familiar with the art that I have provided a mechanism and construction that will hold leaves in quantities so that commercial operation is possible. Further, the clamping and feeding means preserves the long valuable fiber and delivers it separate from the short fibers or tow, which are thrown off the drum below the shoe. j

Having now fully described my invention and 7 its operation, I realize that to those familiar with the art various modifications of the above described apparatus may be evident. All of which,

however, would remain within the spirit of the invention. Therefore, I wish to be limited only by thefollowing claims.

a I claim: I

1. In apparatus of the type disclosed, mechanico-hydraulic mechanism for moving a leaf holding carriage to and from decorticating mechanism, including hydraulic cylinders, pistons operating therein, and piston rods connectedto said leaf holding carriage, a compressed air distributing system including a distributing valve adapted to furnish compressed air to one side of said pistons within said cylinders and release pressure from the opposite side thereof, alternately at predetermined intervals, one side of said hydraulic cylinders together with connections thereto being operable by and filled with a non-compressible fluid.

2. In apparatus of the type described, a leaf holding carriage comprising a frame having a leaf holding guide including an apron and side members attached thereto, a lower jaw having a groove extending along its upper face and containing a resilient material in the bottom thereof,

an upper jaw cooperative therewith having 'a rib adapted to loosely fit in said groove and mechanical means adapted to operate said upper jaw, said means including pneumatically actuated pistons controlled by a distributing valve positioned on said carriage.

3. A leaf holding and feeding device for decorticating apparatus comprising, in combination with a supporting frame having a decorticating drum mounted thereon and a shoe cooperative therewith, a guide trough extending outwardly from said shoe at right angles therefrom, a leaf holding carriage, slidably operative therein, said carriage comprising a pneumatically operative leaf holding clamp, a leaf holding hopper aligned therewith and mechanism for controlling said clamp; and pneumatic mechanism. for operating said carriage in said guide trough toward and away from said drum shoe including pneumatically actuated pistons operative in cylinders, having a means of controlling air pressure supplied alternately to opposite ends of said cylinders at pre-determined intervals, said mechanism including hydraulic means to check the inward movement of said carriage and confine same to a uniform pre-determined speed.

' 4. Decorticating apparatus comprising, in combination, a supporting frame, a decorticating drum operatively mounted therein, a guide trough extending horizontally from the active surface of said drum, a leaf holding carriage operative in said guide trough including a supporting frame, a pair of jaws adapted to grip leaves to be decorticated operative therein, and pneumatic bination, a supporting frame, a decorticating drum having a shoe operatively associated therewith mounted thereon, a guide trough extending horizontally outward from said shoe, a leaf holding carriage longitudinally operative in said trough; said leaf holding carriage comprising.

a frame, having a stationary transverse lower jaw and an upperv movable jaw cooperative therewith and actuated by pneumatic pistons, together with carriage feeding mechanism adapted to move said leaf holding carriage toward and away from said decorticating drum, including pneumatically operated pistons connected to said carriage, one side of said pistons being operated by fluid controlled by an escapement valve, whereby the movement of said carriage toward said decorticating drum may be maintained at a pre-determined speed.

ROBERT S. CHAPMAN. 

